Editorial | The new Joe Camel

The gun industry in America has learned an important lesson from the "Merchants of Death" of the tobacco industry:

To stay profitable, you've got to hook customers while they are young, even though they are too young to legally buy your product.

The industry drive to attract ever-younger customers was tragically illustrated this week in southern Kentucky when a five-year-old boy, playing with a "child-sized" rifle he had received as a gift, shot and killed his two-year-old sister.

While the tobacco industry's efforts to market to children have been drastically curtailed in recent years, largely because cigarettes cause disease and death, the firearms industry and its affiliates are waging an ever-expanding campaign to lure very young children to guns.

Guns also cause death and injury. And, as with tobacco, you have to be 18 to legally purchase a firearm in the United States.

"My First Rifle," is the title of one colorful, children's story book promoted by the company that sells the rifle used by the five-year-old in Thursday's fatal shooting.

"It teaches safety and gets the youth excited about rifles," the website of Keystone Sporting Arms of Milton, Pa., proclaims.

Authorities say the boy was playing with his .22-caliber rifle named "Crickett" when Caroline Sparks, 2, was shot in the chest at the family's home in Burkesville.

Marketed as "My First Rifle," the weapon is promoted on the company's website's "Kids Corner" which includes testimonials from parents including one who claims the small rifles "are just the right size for my 5- and 7-year-olds," The Courier-Journal's Andrew Wolfson reported Thursday.

The website features a jaunty green cricket cartoon character holding a rifle.

Yet in Kentucky, a grieving family has suffered a devastating loss. The fact that so many other families appear to be thrilled with small rifles for small children - and manufacturers are happy to market and sell them - will be little comfort for them in the days ahead.

Authorities are sorting out details of this terrible event and it is still to be determined who, if anyone, will be held accountable and whether, as some have demanded, the parents be charged.

But we, as a state and nation, must consider how extreme we have become when a child who can't legally possess a cigarette in Kentucky has access to a rifle made especially for children and eagerly supplied by an industry which promotes youth access to guns.

In January, following the mass-shooting slaughter of 20 small children and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, The New York Times reported that the firearms industry and its representatives, the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, in recent years have embarked on extensive efforts to market guns to youth.

Millions of dollars have been poured into youth shooting programs, which the industry masks as "safety programs," and newer initiatives seek to introduce children to high-powered handguns and rifles, the Times reported.

The industry-supported magazine "Junior Shooters," which seeks to recruit children to recreational shooting, has featured the fun of target shooting with the Bushmaster AR-15, a military style assault weapon used in mass shootings around the country including at Newtown and at the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Col.

"Who knows?" asked a Junior Shooters' article about the joys of a youth version of the weapon. "Maybe you'll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning."

The Times said gun industry research says PR efforts should focus on "family" and "fun" in promoting youth shooting and promotional material should push children to enlist their parents.

Regulators wised up years ago about the seductive effect of tobacco ads on children. Now, authorities need to take a close look at the firearms industry's similar efforts and not be deterred by extremist bleatings of Second Amendment rights.

Just as kids have a right not to die from lung cancer, they have a right not to die in shootings.

Just as "Joe Camel" was eventually banned from cigarette advertising, regulators must take aim at the cute Crickett rifle character and the massive child firearms marketing effort it represents.

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Editorial | The new Joe Camel

The gun industry in America has learned an important lesson from the 'Merchants of Death' of the tobacco industry: